Al-Qaida leader claims German Sept. 11 suspect has died

BERLIN – Al-Qaida's leader has claimed in an online message that a German man believed to have provided logistical support to the Hamburg-based Sept. 11 hijackers has died. The announcement by Ayman al-Zawahri came in an Aug. 2 audio message in which he says a man he identifies as Zuhair al-Maghribi who worked for As-Sahab, the terror network's media arm, is a "martyr."

He didn't provide details or say when and how al-Maghribi died.

Al-Maghribi is a known alias of Said Bahaji who is believed to have helped suicide hijackers Mohamad Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah when they were in Hamburg, and to have fled shortly before the 2001 attacks.

The authenticity of the recording could not be independently confirmed but it resembled previous messages released by the al-Qaida leader.